Thursday, August 10, 2006

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

Victor Davis Hanson says it is not for Israel, but the West, as he discusses the "depressing pattern" of Western responses and media reports of the Israel/Hezbollah conflict:

Still, when this is all over, we should not worry about the survival of Israel. For weeks, pundits have been lecturing how canny and adept Hezbollah has proved -- and how a clumsy Israel could only respond by destroying Lebanon's infrastructure. Yet, when the dust settles, the world will learn that Lebanon outside Hezbollah's domain is not destroyed. And, one hopes, those who have suffered in the Hezbollah-controlled south will reexamine their support for a terrorist organization that has brought them -- and itself -- to near ruin.

Instead far more worrisome is the moral crisis in the West itself. If so many of its politicians, intellectuals and media will not or cannot fathom moral differences in this war, they will hardly be able to see them anywhere else.

Read his entire piece, because, when you add it all up, it is an extremely depressing pattern of psychological denial and displacement.